Booking through companies

[Bella61]

Has anyone used "One Foot Abroad" to book a Camino with? Could you give me some feedback on this company or others. This being my first trip out of the country and the fact that they are predicting it will be very busy, I'm wondering if this isn't the safer way to go to ensure lodgings.

[Covey]

The problem with an organised tour is that it ceases to be your Camino, and you really become a tourist. One of the joys of the Camino is that you do it your way, you walk when you want, for how long you want and there is nobody telling you that you have got to be at a certain place at a certain time.

Sometimes, if the weather is sunny and the albergue looks nice, I will stop early and do my laundry and then have a wander around the town, meet up with friends and have a beer and something to eat. Where we stop depends on how one feels during the day, the weather and where your walking companions are planning on staying. Usually we sort out the next days plan over dinner and the odd glass of something (medicinal purposes only of course!!) but everything is subject to change when you stick your nose outside the door in the morning!

I start each Camino with two fixed items. My plane ticket to Bairritz and my ticket home in 6-7 weeks time. Between those two dates, I take each day as it comes. If I find the people I am walking with are getting dull, I just slow up one day, let them go ahead and join the group coming up behind.

Walking on a booked Camino I fear you will be stuck with those in the Group for 30+ days. That might not be much fun!!

Start walking at first light and finish no later than 2pm and you will not have a problem with finding a bed.

Buen Camino

[Covey]

There are many pilgrims who walk the Ways, but try and avoid the albergues. The albergues are very very basic (other than some of the new ones like Burgos) and there are those for whom the delights of mass dormitory living does not appeal.

In the albergues there is zero privacy, often fairly primitive plumbing and not a sheet in sight! Some find the fact that the bunk next to you is so close and really not much different than sleeping in a double bed, vaguely disconcerting considering the fact that its occupant is not your beloved, but a complete stranger!

The older one gets, the more we enjoy our creature comforts and I for one enjoy my rest days in Burgos and Leon in a nice hotel with a bath!!!